I’ve Landed My Dream Job – Now What?

You know this as true: if you are a big company senior level manager or CEO, you can get (and afford) plenty of help in succeeding in your new position. Consultants focus on executives and find every way they can to support them in their new position.

People who work in cubicles? Not so much.

I’ve Landed My Dream Job — Now What??? focuses on what needs to happen during the first 30 days of work to help you succeed in your new position. And, to be fair, CEO’s could learn a thing or two from the book as well. Seriously.

My story

I’ve been in the job market a long time. During that time I’ve seen tremendous downsizing, incredible change and what I call the “5% unemployment rate and 75% corporate churn” nail hundreds of employees.

During my time on the job market, I averaged a new manager (not necessarily a new job) every 18 months. In all of my time in the workforce, I’ve only had one manager give me my performance review two years in a row. One.

When I went into management, I was continually surprised at how passive new people were about succeeding. It was if they were so happy — or relieved — to be in a new position that they didn’t realize the really hard work was now at hand. That didn’t have many consequences not so long ago. But being passive about your work after you get a new position in your current company or new company is now high risk.

That’s why I wanted to write this book: to give people a way to plan and test their new job to give them immediate success and feedback about their work.

There are reasons for this need.

The job market has total volatility

This job market is like no other since the Great Depression. The problem is that the reduced levels of hiring are not going to go away any time soon. After almost seven years since the bottom of the Great Recession, we’re only now back to employment levels from 2007. That doesn’t include population growth where new people entering the job market start to look for work; that’s just to get even.

That means lots of churn — and the need to hit the ground running as soon as you get a new position. There are simply too many qualified people looking for work for you to sit on your excitement on getting your new gig.

Job satisfaction is a two-way street

Here’s the deal: job satisfaction is a two-way street. Contrary to all the serious pundits who look down their nose at the poor little people working in cubes, your work isn’t just about being lucky enough to have a job.

The truth of the matter is that if you are in a position that isn’t right for you, you do poorly. If the social aspects of your work — getting along with your manager and coworkers — isn’t working out, you won’t do well.

People who don’t perform well have fewer results to show potential hiring managers, get lower performance review ratings that hurt their income, and have a higher chance of getting laid off.

And then it takes even longer to find another position, much less a dream job. That worked out nice, didn’t it?

Consequently, I spend a lot of time in I’ve Landed My Dream Job — Now What??? focused on ensuring that the position is also right for you. You need to know early on whether this dream job is going to work out, before all the bad things that can happen in a bad job start happening to you. The earlier you know if the position will work for you — or not — the earlier you can take steps to prevent worse actions from happening and get the job right. Or the earlier you will know if the position will work out at all and you can start a new search.

Plans, tasks and reviews will tell the tale

It is time for people to take charge of their work. I’ve Landed My Dream Job — Now What??? sets out a plan, doable tasks, and a review process that will help make sure you’re successful in your new job — and the job is right for you. Or not. People always forget that second part until it is too late.

Following the actions in the book will significantly increase your chances of succeeding in your new dream job and swatting away many of the problems that come up early in a new position. You want your work reputation to be the best, integrate yourself with your manager and coworkers, and find satisfaction in the work.

I’ve Landed My Dream Job — Now What??? will help you do that.

About Cube Rules

This is not your ordinary career site. I help the corporate worker who toils away in the company cubicle make career transitions. You want to do your job well, following all the rules — Cube Rules.

The career transitions where I can help you center on three critical career areas: How to land a job, succeed in a job, and build employment security.

Note: the content on this web site is my opinion and will probably not reflect the views of my various employers.